TREE Press article: How do we get research into the hands of practitioners?

How do we get research into the hands of practitioners?

Alexander Martin, University of Toronto

Lukas Olson, University of British Columbia

Andrew Almas, University of British Columbia

The advancement of professional practice relies on arboriculture and urban forestry research. But how, as researchers, can we help get the research into the hands of practitioners? During 2023, we launched an online survey on knowledge translation, resulting in 1,088 responses from arborists and urban foresters in both Canada and the United States.

Arborists and urban foresters learn of industry updates through various sources. A challenge for researchers is that there is no one method of receiving information. The two most common methods of gaining knowledge were discussions with other industry professionals (41%) and conferences and trade shows (40%). The more popular conferences and trade shows included those hosted by their local ISA chapter (60%), followed by the international ISA conference (30%), the Canadian Urban Forestry Conference (24%), and the TCI Expo (21%). For those researchers seeking to get their research into the hands of industry professionals, presenting at ISA chapter conferences may be the best avenue.

Less conventional methods of research dissemination include social media groups (e.g., Facebook groups) (38%) and social media posts (e.g., LinkedIn, Instagram) (36%). Even fewer arborists relied on webinars, instruction from trainers, or magazines like Arborist News or their local ISA chapter’s newsletter. Arborists infrequently relied on peer-reviewed journals. Journal paywalls posed a barrier for many respondents, and the most common “workaround” for paywalls was to not read the article. One respondent wrote, “you don’t know what you don’t know, so if the article is in a subscription I don’t see, then I don’t know what I am missing”.

Getting research into the hands of arborists and urban foresters is imperative to improving professional practice. A diversity of methods, social media, and industry conferences can help reach audiences far more successfully than publications.

You can read through the full results in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, including perceptions of virtual versus in-person conferences, the most commonly read journals and magazines, and frequently attended conferences. Thank you to the TREE Fund for supporting this research through sharing our survey.